Tony-winning Actress, Longtime Westchester Resident, Frances Sternhagen Dies

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The New Rochelle Walk of Fame is a little bit dimmer and a lifetime of performances that touched millions a little more distant with the passing of a legendary actress.

Frances Sternhagen, longtime New Rochelle resident and veteran character actor, died in her New Rochelle home on Monday, at the age of 93.

Her son, John Carlin, announced his mother's passing away of natural causes in an Instagram post on Wednesday. "Fly on, Frannie," he wrote. "The curtain goes down on a life so richly, passionately, humbly and generously lived."

The actress’s publicist confirmed her death and that it took place in New Rochelle.

A New Rochelle resident since 1959, Sternhagen was inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame in 2014, when she was honored with a commemorative sign listing several of her roles.

The actress and her actor husband, Thomas A. Carlin, raised their six children in the Sutton Manor neighborhood of New Rochelle, overlooking the Long Island Sound.

"Where we grew up in a small corner of New Rochelle on the Sound, there was a large contingent of artists living nearby — writers, photographers, musicians. We were the actors on the block," Sternhagen's son, Paul Carlin, said in 2010. "Our parents, and all the rest of these adults, pursuing an actual living in the arts, gave us an idea that not only could it be done, but that it could even be rather normal."

Sternhagen and Carlin had four sons, Paul, Tony, Peter and John, and two daughters, Amanda and Sarah. She also is survived by nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

SEE ALSO:

• New Rochelle Holds 3rd Annual Walk of Fame Ceremony
• [VIDEO] Frances Sternhagen Reads to Seniors in New Rochelle
• Nashional Treasure: A Celebration of Ogden Nash
• Tony Award-Winning Actress Comes to Rye Country Day

Sternhagen's roles included her Emmy-nominated role as Charlotte's mother-in-law on "Sex and the City," her Emmy-nominated role as Cliff's know-it-all mom on "Cheers," Dr. Carter's wealthy grandmother on "ER," Blanche Braverman on "Parenthood," and Willie Ray Johnson on "The Closer."

She won her first Tony in 1974 for best featured actress for her role in Neil Simon's "The Good Doctor," and her second in 1995 for her role in "The Heiress." She was also nominated for Tonys for her roles in "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window," "Equus," "Angel," and "Morning's at Seven."

Sternhagen kept up a flourishing career while at the same time raising six children. The actress always said her family came first — commuting from her home in New Rochelle while acting on Broadway — but admitted that touring and movie and TV work sometimes took her away from home.

"I remember telling my older daughter when she was about 13 that sometimes I felt terribly guilty that I wasn’t home all the time," she told a Gale Group reporter. "And my daughter said, 'Oh, Mom, you would have been impossible if you were home all the time.' I’m sure she was right."

Sternhagen was born in 1930, in Washington, D.C., where her father was a tax court judge. She entered Vassar as a history major, but a teacher suggested another direction: acting.

"Even though I was acting in college," she told the New York Daily News, "it hadn’t occurred to me to major in drama."

The AP contributed to this report.